Joey Graziano is the Chief Business Officer of the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, where he leads the organization's commercial strategy, mixed-use real estate development, data and analytics initiatives, and fan experience innovation. Under his leadership, the Pacers organization is developing one of the most ambitious sports entertainment districts in the country — a 60-acre mixed-use development surrounding Gainbridge Fieldhouse anchored by a Ritz-Carlton and a Live Nation music venue — with a vision to become a model for public-private sports development that can be replicated across American cities.
Before joining the Pacers, Joey spent six years at the NBA as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Event Strategy & Development, where he oversaw strategic planning, new asset creation, and business development for the league's marquee global events, including the NBA All-Star Game, NBA Finals, NBA Draft, and international games. He was one of the key architects of the 2020 NBA Bubble, spearheading the strategy and execution that allowed the league to safely resume its season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World — a landmark operational achievement that provided a model for the broader sports industry.
Prior to the NBA, Joey served as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of The Headfirst Companies, where he helped grow a 15-person startup into an industry-leading immersive live event company with more than 1,500 employees operating across 20 states and four countries. At scale, Headfirst produced events for a third of Major League Baseball franchises, the English Premier League, and more than 150 colleges and universities.
Earlier in his career, Joey was an associate at international law firm Jones Day, where he focused on complex civil and criminal litigation. A Mitchell Scholar, he earned an LLM in Public Law from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and conducted bribery and corruption investigations through the World Bank's Office of Evaluation and Suspension. He received his B.A. and J.D. from Georgetown University summa cum laude, where he was a Rhodes Scholar finalist, played collegiate baseball, and was shaped by the university's storied fellowship programs.
Joey is also the founder of a nonprofit in the Dominican Republic that uses baseball to promote literacy for children in the barrio of Consuelo, and he founded the Academy for Veterans to ensure governments honor their commitments to those who served.
A Queens native and son of a New York City firefighter, Joey brings a run-toward-the-fire mentality to everything he does — from reimagining how sports organizations create value in their communities, to building the next generation of sports business leaders.
